Meet Drew, who lost everything - and learn from his story
- Tue, November 09 2010
- Filed under: Marketing essentials
Drew is a homeless man in St. Petersburg, Florida. He lost his job as a welder in the recession - and then lost everything when a drunk driver killed his family. Now this college graduate who was once family man working on a civil engineering degree has been homeless for four months, eating food he finds in dumpsters. “It can happen that quick to anybody,” Drew says. “So you probably shouldn’t judge the next time you see somebody asking for just a little bit of help.” Drew was asked what three wishes he has in this world. The reply? That people would help rather than hurt each other. That he could get his family back. And that he could understand why things happen.
This is one of many stories captured in a new book chronicling the work of my friend Mark Horvath. I’ve blogged about him often, because of his own inspiring story as a formerly homeless person - and his life’s mission of helping the homeless tell their stories. Homeless people are often ignored. He seeks to make people like Drew visible by shining the spotlight on them through video interviews at Invisible People TV. Mark opens my eyes to homelessness - and he teaches us all about the power of story.
Photo of me with Mark by Geoff Livingston
Kevin Hendricks, one of Mark’s many fans, has put together this book called Get the Eyes: Seeing the Invisible People of Homelessness. The book highlights the stories of real homeless people, which are interspersed with reflections from social media experts, nonprofit heroes, technology executives and more. You can get it here - any profit goes to Mark.
You can donate directly to Mark’s cause here. (I just gave $50 and encourage you to support Mark’s work if you’re moved by his efforts and what he teaches us. He’s nearly homeless again since he pours all of his money into his work with the homeless.)
Kevin and Mark: Thanks for telling Drew’s story. And thanks for reminding us of something very important:
To make an issue matter, tell a story about it. To make a person matter, let him tell his own story.
Comments
Mark Horvath is a huge inspiration I can’t wait to to recieve his book, it’s a slight wait as I’m in the UK but I know it will be very worth it. His information has really opened my eyes up, I always wanted to help people and he has just given me that extra push that I needed to do something about it and thanks to Mark I now have an amazing and interesting research study for my dissertation.
Also I now know what the content of my blog will be in the future, no more being confused about what to write about…finally I feel i know my niche! so THANK YOU MARK HORVATH.
Katya,
there are no words to express how grateful I am that from day one you believed in me. When we first connected InvisiblePeople.tv was only a vision. I was looking for work and very desperate to survive. Although I am still not better off financially, I literally have made history and along the way caused a paradigm shift in homeless services resulting in people finding solutions.
I honestly believe it was your first post that started all this momentum.
Thanks so very much
Hugs,
Mark
Thanks, Mark. My hero:)
This is a very powerful story and I think I am going to take what I learned from my own experience and from this story I am going to make some changes on how I conduct myself
What a heart-warming story, kudos for taking time to put something back with your blog. I find it surprising how many people see the homeless as simply lazy. This story highlights the very real fact that it could happen to any of us and we should be compassionate to those less fortunate than ourselves.
Thanks for this timely entry. We had a discussion around this topic over breakfast this morning with a bunch of guys and seeing the human side in such sharp focus brings great perspective.
I look forward to reading the book.
This is the kind of story that makes me think: i’m so happy not to live in the US. Drew is a great man, that he as the strenght to cope with all his problems. But over here, the state would care more for the poor people needing help in their lifes!
My goodness, what a story! It just goes to show that we need to be grateful when things are going well. I will have to find that book when it’s available in the UK.
Wow, what an amazing story of determination and never giving up hope
What a very touching and inspiring story. This is an eye opener to those who are unhappy and cannot be happy of what they have. That despite of everything that happened in your life there is still a purpose to go on living. Thanks to people like Mark who have a big heart helping the homeless. I wish you more power.
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nice one…..and the information are so cool.
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This is an awesome introducing with Drew. I feel very sorry to know that he lost everything. I hope he will cross this problem very early. Thanks a lot.
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